1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a print control program, a print control method, an information processing apparatus, and a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a printer has an imposing (layout) function to print images onto one or more physical sheets by scaling (i.e., enlarging or reducing the size of) the print data to be printed based on printing instructions from applications such as “aggregation”, “bookbinding (hereinafter simplified as “binding”)”, and “variable magnification”.
As the modules that may realize those functions, there are, for example,    a printer driver;    a print processor; and    a printer main body.
Among these, the printer driver and the print processor are modules generally included in an information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus may also be called a Personal Computer (PC). Further, those functions may be combined to perform printing.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example of aggregation printing. The example of FIG. 1 illustrates 4-in-1 aggregation printing (i.e., four-page data are printed in one page) As illustrated in FIG. 1, in the aggregation printing, a reducing process (reducing the size of an image to be printed) is performed.
FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example of binding printing. As illustrated in FIG. 2, in the binding printing, a reducing process (a process of reducing the size of an image to be printed) is performed.
FIG. 3 schematically illustrates an example of variable magnification printing. As illustrated in the example of FIG. 3, a process of enlarging and printing a draft page is performed. As illustrated in FIG. 3, in the variable magnification printing, an enlarging process (a process of enlarging the size of an image on a draft page) or the reducing process is performed.
FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an example where the aggregation printing and the variable magnification printing are jointly performed (combined). As illustrated in FIG. 4, in the variable magnification printing, a reducing process (a process of reducing the size of an image on a draft page) is performed.
Here, in a case where those printing functions are performed by both a printer and the PC, there is a known technique in which the load of the functions may be shared (distributed) (i.e., load sharing).
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-007415 discloses that a PC and a printer share the load of a color matching process.